


Let's build our own fairy tale

by Mierke



Category: God Friended Me (TV)
Genre: F/M, friend suggestion
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-04-30
Updated: 2020-04-30
Packaged: 2021-03-01 17:21:41
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,228
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/23930743
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Mierke/pseuds/Mierke
Summary: Set during Jaya and Rakesh' fake break-up.When Miles' latest friend suggestion has Jaya listed as his girlfriend, Rakesh drowns in his misery and Miles and Cara just try to figure out what's going on.
Relationships: Jaya/Rakesh Singh
Kudos: 2





	Let's build our own fairy tale

**Author's Note:**

> Written for the prompt _Truth_ for the [100 Fandom challenge](https://100fandoms.dreamwidth.org/). Inspired by _Definitely looks like a liar to me._ for _One Million Words_ ' ['The Wisdom of Billy Connolly' weekend challenge](https://1-million-words.livejournal.com/2942571.html).

"What do you think, Rakesh?"

Rakesh hardly looked up from the screen where the research into their latest friend suggestion was piling up. "Definitely looks like a liar to me."

"Rakesh!" Cara scolded, but he just shrugged.

"What's going on?" Miles asked. He and Cara exchanged a look, but it seemed like no explanation would be forthcoming.

"Your guy is currently at the hospital."

"That can't be good." Miles stood up, Cara in his wake.

"Maybe that's where we need to help," she offered.

"Don't think so." Rakesh glared at the computer. "That's where his girlfriend works."

"Oh! That's probably who the ring was for." Cara smiled, but Rakesh kicked away his chair from the computer and left the room without another word.

She and Miles exchanged another look, and Miles leaned closer to the computer to see if he could figure out why Rakesh was being so weird. "Oh no."

"What? What's going on?"

"His girlfriend is listed as Jaya."

* * *

"Maybe it's a fake status," Cara offered. "To throw your parents off the trail."

Rakesh gloomily looked at his drink. "Why would he go along with that?"

"Maybe he's got his own secret relationship."

"Yeah, sure. That's how life works. The guy was buying a _wedding ring_. You don't think that means something?"

"Of course it means something," Miles said, flinching when Rakesh looked like he was going to cry. "We just don't know what it means, yet."

"Jaya does not want to get married, remember?" Cara reminded him. "Even if it were a ring for her, don't you think that if she was getting married anyway, she'd marry you?"

Rakesh shrugged. "Maybe that was just an excuse. Maybe she's just sick of me and doesn't know how to tell me."

Silence fell as Cara and Miles tried to figure out where to go from here.

"Stop looking at each other like that," Rakesh said. "I can hear you thinking. I'm not pathetic. Just sad."

He downed the glass and motioned Ali for another one. She put another beer in front of him and said: "You know, there is an easy way to figure out what is going on."

Rakesh lifted a shoulder in what could even hardly count as a shrug. Miles and Ali looked at each other.

"Talk to her," Ali urged.

"Why would she even tell me the truth?" Rakesh lamented. "She hasn't done so far. I didn't even know her Facebook status had been updated to 'in a relationship'. I hardly know who this guy is aside from the fact that her parents are trying to set them up. And you know why? Because she _never talks to me_."

He downed the new glass in one go and slammed it down on the bar.

"I'm going home."

He didn't wait for a response before leaving the bar, leaving Miles, Cara and Ali looking after him, equally worried looks on their faces.

"The God account wouldn't send us a name just to break Rakesh's heart, would it?" Cara asked.

"Not really its style," Miles said. "Let's go find that Nikit. See if we can figure out what's going on."

* * *

"Hey, Nikit Banik? Can we talk?"

Miles and Cara walked up to Nikit at a coffee shop near the hospital. He looked at them in confusion. "Do I know you?"

"We're friends of Rakesh."

"Rakesh... Oh!" Understanding lit on his face as he took his cup of coffee from the barista. "Jaya's Rakesh."

Miles and Cara looked at each other in confusion. "You know about Rakesh?"

"Of course I do." Nikit motioned them to a table, and they sat down.

"Then why are you buying a wedding ring for Jaya?" Cara asked.

"You saw that, huh." Nikit sipped from his coffee and didn't immediately elaborate. After a while, he set the cup down and sighed. "It's not what you think."

"Okay. Then tell us what's going on."

"The ring is for Abhay. My boyfriend." He mumbled the last words into his cup, as if trying to hide behind his coffee.

"That is wonderful. Congratulations!" Cara beamed.

"But if you're planning on marrying your boyfriend, what are you doing with Jaya?" Miles asked.

"Because nobody knows, yet. I've tried coming out to my parents, but they don't want to hear me. They think that if they can just stop me saying the words, it won't be true. That's why they're trying to set me up with Jaya."

"How long have you and Abhay been dating?"

"Just over two years." Nikit smiled. "He's the most wonderful person you'll ever meet. He's kind, and witty, and fearless. We agreed to both come out this year so we could get married, and he did it without hesitation. He's just waiting on me to catch up."

"I thought buying the ring would help me find the courage," he continued. "But it hasn't so far."

"I know it's hard," Miles said. "But you can't hide forever. Maybe your parents will be more open-minded than you think. My father was the reverent of Harlem Episcopal, and there were some very conservative people in our church. But when my sister came out as gay, he unequivocally chose her side."

"Your parents love you," Cara said. "Surely they will accept you for who you are."

"Perhaps," Nikit said. "Or they'll disown me, never speak to me again and remove me from the family."

He suddenly got up from the table. "I can't talk about this anymore. Tell Rakesh that he has nothing to worry about."

* * *

"How could you!" Jaya marched into the bar and up to Rakesh. "You had no right."

"Jaya-" Cara started, but Jaya cut her off.

"No. This is between him and me."

She almost dragged Rakesh from his bar stool, and he looked at Miles for help.

"Actually, it's not," Miles said, not even flinching that much when Jaya turned her glare to him. "We didn't walk up to Nikit because of Rakesh. That was just an easy way in."

Jaya looked from him to Rakesh, not understanding.

"He's the new friend suggestion," Rakesh said. "Did you honestly think I'd send Miles and Cara to do my dirty work? Even if I was the kind of person to intimidate your boyfriend, which I'm not, I'd do it myself, thank you very much."

"I'm sorry, Rakesh," Jaya said. "He wouldn't say much. Only that friends of yours had come by, and that he needed to think about his future. I think he's about to do something stupid and come out to his parents."

"But that's a good thing, right?" Miles asked.

"If he had a support system, sure. But he's got nowhere to go if they kick him out."

"What about the boyfriend?" Cara asked.

"What boyfriend? There is no boyfriend."

Cara and Miles exchanged a look.

"Sure, there is," Miles said slowly. "He told us he's been seeing him for two years. He bought him an engagement ring."

Jaya groaned. "Oh God, this is even worse than I thought."

At those words Ali came over. "What's going on?"

"These two," Jaya said, inclining her head towards Cara and Miles, "convinced my fake boyfriend to come out to his parents so he can propose to a guy he's briefly dated two years ago, but who told him he couldn't go back into the closet and who is now dating someone else."

"Ouch." Ali winced sympathetically.

"We need to talk to Abhay," Cara said. "Maybe he can help."

* * *

They met Abhay in the same coffee shop where they had met up with Nikit before, the significance not lost on Miles and Cara.

"This is Cara, I'm Miles," Miles introduced them. "We're friends of Nikit."

Abhay took his order from the barista and sipped it thoughtfully. "How is he doing?"

"About to do something rash," Miles said.

"He's about to come out to his parents," Cara explained. "And I know you have a boyfriend, but could you please talk to him? Jaya is worried that he'll have nowhere to go if his parents disown him."

Abhay's eyes had lit up halfway through Cara's explanation. "He's really doing that, huh."

"I'm actually not dating anyone," he continued after a beat. "My boyfriend dumped me a few weeks ago because he was convinced I was still hung up on my ex."

Cara bit back a smile. "Are you?"

* * *

"Well, I was right," Jaya said as she entered the bar. Miles, Cara and Rakesh looked up, worried. "His parents kicked him out. He's staying at me and my parents' for a while. Who were thrilled, by the way."

She said this last thing pointedly at Rakesh, who promptly drowned himself in the beer he was drinking.

"For what it's worth," Ali added. "I don't know anyone who came out and lost their parents who regretted it in the long run. Of course it hurts right now, but living your truth is always better than hiding behind a facade."

"Easy for you to say," Jaya mumbled, and Ali acknowledged that with a nod.

"Still," she said. "It wasn't that way for all of my friends. Yet they're all happy about being honest."

"What about Abhay?" Miles asked. "Cara and I went to talk to him, and he seemed to really like Nikit."

"I convinced Nikit not to talk to him," Jaya said. "You can't just ask someone to marry you when you haven't even seen them in months. He needs to get back on his feet, not be swept up in some affair."

"He's not seeing anyone, though," Cara said. "His boyfriend left him because he wasn't over his ex."

Jaya groaned into her hands.

"You're not exactly a dating guru," Rakesh grumbled. "Maybe you should just stay out of it."

"I'm just trying to help."

"No, you're not. First, you put his relationship with his parents over everything, just like you're doing with your own parents. Then you're not even allowing him a chance at love? Do you even believe in love or is it all just a fairy tale to you?"

He didn't wait for Jaya's response, instead leaving the bar in an angry stride. Jaya watched him go.

"I don't know how to make this right," she said.

"You just need to let him know that you'll choose him, every once in a while," Cara said. "It's not about lying to your parents, not really. It's about how you seem to have given up on him in all ways except actually ending the relationship."

"He needs to know he's still a part of your life, and you still want him there," Miles added. "Because it surely seems like everything is more important to you than him."

* * *

A knock on his door interrupted Miles from his preparatory work for the next podcast. There was something about the power of love in all of this, but he couldn't quite grasp it yet.

Abhay and Nikit were standing in the hallway.

"Come on in." Miles led them into his living room. "What's going on?"

"We just wanted to thank you," Nikit said. "We got a text, each of us, saying to meet at the café. We figured it was from you."

"It wasn't," Miles admitted, "but I'm glad you two got a chance to talk. How did it go?"

"Well, we're not getting married yet," Abhay chuckled.

"That was a bit overdramatic," Nikit admitted. "But we are dating again. We'll try to see where it leads. I don't know if my parents will come around, but Abhay knows a place where I can stay for a while."

"Even if the texts weren't yours," Abhay said. "This wouldn't have happened without you. So thank you."

"Happy to help." Miles smiled. "And I might have an inkling of who did send those texts."

* * *

"That was so sneaky of you!" Cara smiled at Jaya.

"Sorry for using your name," Jaya said to Miles. "But I'm not exactly their favourite person right now, and I didn't know if they'd come if they saw it came from me."

"No problem," Miles smiled. "I'm just glad it all worked out."

"So am I." Jaya looked at the door. "Now if only my relationship with Rakesh was so easy to fix."

"Miles, I got your text, you said we had somewhere to go tonight?"

Rakesh came in the bar and Miles looked at Jaya. "Maybe it is."

He and Cara left, leaving Rakesh and Jaya awkwardly looking at each other for a couple of beats.

"I heard you had a hand in rekindling Nikit and Abhay," Rakesh said. "That's great."

"I do believe in love, Rakesh," Jaya said. "And I believe we can make this work. It's been difficult, juggling my parents and work and you, and I know I've not done a great job of it. But I am here. From now on, every Thursday evening is yours completely. I told my parents I'm taking cooking lessons."

Rakesh' face lit up. "Won't they notice if your cooking isn't getting any better?"

"They've never let me cook in my life," Jaya said. "They're not going to start now. They're just happy I'm preparing for life as a wife."

"Which I am," she added with a smile. "Just not in the way they think."

"Then let's go." Rakesh held out his arm, waiting for Jaya to take it. "I know just the place to go."


End file.
